The Curse Of The Heavenly Keys
by Sapphire's Ink
Summary: Remember the Eclipse? Yeah, the one that made the zodiac and the spirit king go bonkers? The Celestial Spirit Beast turned thirteen mages into constellations (I added Lisanna and Erza in there for creative licence). Mustache-face couldn't turn the thirteen back, so they become celestial spirits. Category? The Nebulae.
1. Prologue

**What if the celestial spirit king retained all of his memories after the eclipse that affected celestial spirits and wasn't able to restore all of the mages to normal? What if they were stuck as constellations/celestial spirits? My take on the aftermath of 'Eclipse' saga.**

 **Here's what might have happened.**

 **PS: I decided to take creative license and put Lisanna with the others at the Eclipse. She got turned. Also, Erza was turned into a constellation alongside most of her comrades while saving Lucy from that fate.**

 **I own nothing except the story and the former fairy tail mages' keys (not including Leo's (If you're confused with someone being called 'Leo', that's Loke)).**

 **Rewritten almost from scratch. Really sorry about it being complete and utter crap before. Now a multi-chapter story.**

"Normal speech"

(author's comments and/or explanation)

 _Thoughts_

ENUNCIATION AND/OR SHOUTING

 **POV switch**

 _'FLASHBACKS are like this.'_

After the final battle with the eclipse spirits, Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Gray, and Gajeel walked the path to find their missing friends. The spirit world was restored, and spirits standing there caught Lucy's eyes. In the middle of the road stood the restored zodiac spirits, no longer affected by the Eclipse. They all stood there looking like a member of celestial spirit royalty had died. This confused everyone there until Lucy remembered the things her mother used to say about constellations.

' _WHEN a constellation is formed, it can't go back to being just a collection of stars. When there is a new constellation, it means the celestial spirit king lost control of the beast lurking inside of him. But no matter what, those turned can't be turned back if the time limit exceeds three days in the human world. That's one of the contracts that the celestial spirit king made with the rules of earthland in the past. It's also how the Zodiac came to become the Zodiac._ '

"Guys?" Lucy asked, looking hesitantly at their spirits. Her words seemed to put a bullet through their hearts, and Lucy knew this, but she needed to find out if what her mother had said was true. If her friends were actually staying as constellations. "Please?"

None of the celestial spirits seemed willing to talk about it. In the place of words, Virgo fell to the ground and started sobbing. Leo knelt down by her and started stroking her back as if she was a cat, which was kind of ironic seeing as he was the cat and she was the semi-human woman. The pain-filled look Leo sent Lucy confirmed these suspicions. She immediately fell to her knees.

"So... It's true?" the blonde asked.

"Unfortunately." Leo said, looking back up at the new constellations accompanying his comrades.

Lucy started crying lightly, trying to convince herself this was a dream. Of course it was a dream. It had to be a dream...

But it was too real to be a dream. That fight she had with Virgo, the last part where she had to defeat Libra with Yukino, the Urano Metria spell, the magic drain, the fight with the celestial spirit king-

Lucy's eyes suddenly flashed red. "Can't the king do anything about this?"

Leo looked more forlorn than before, but now there was a touch of anger and shock. "Don't you think that if he could, that he would have turned all of _us_ back by now?"

Natsu stomped up to them. "WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IN THE NAME OF HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" he shouted.

Lucy got up, but refused to look at her best friend standing behind her. "Our comrades, the ones that have been turned into constellations, cannot be turned back to their original forms, which means, in terms that you can understand you idiot, that the ones turned into constellations can't NOT be celestial spirits. It's happened before with the Zodiac, and it will happen again with our friends. They're celestial spirits and they're staying that way. The king can't riddle his way out of this one either. There is no way around this."

Plain as day did Natsu's eyes widen, which was followed by the paling of his skin to the shade of a sheet in less than a second. You would have had to be blind to not notice it, either that or completely and totally devastated with the loss of your friends.

Quickly catching up to the sobbing friends by the Zodiac (who were having **_such_** a sense of déjà vu) were the reasons why everyone was on the ground punching the gravel and sobbing. Juvia, Archadeos, Hisui, Pantherlily, Wendy, Carla, Cana, Erza, Levy, Elfman, Mirajane, and Lisanna all came running up to them, grinning until they noticed the others all sobbing, Lucy hardest of them all.

"Um-" Levy started, but was cut short by Gajeel, who quite suddenly hugged her.

"It's really you?" Gajeel asked.

"Yeah. Why would you think it's not me?"

Levy didn't get an answer. Gajeel simply clutched her tighter, until it was quite uncomfortable for the now-celestial-spirit solid script mage.

Quietly, over the course of about twenty minutes, Lucy and the Zodiacs relayed the explanation of what was happening. Everyone, including those who had already heard this, were shocked into silence.

Natsu was the first to notice the absence of one of their friends. "Where the hell is Yukino?"

Wendy sniffed the air. "Everything here smells like her. But if the others weren't affected with being turned into celestial spirits, then where is she?" she asked before Lucy picked herself up and sniffled.

"Simple, isn't it?" Lucy asked as if it were the most simple thing in the world. Tears still flew from her eyes, outlined with red. "Just like how Ophi was turned into the thirteenth zodiac and was placed above everyone else in the zodiac, she became known as the second-in-command. There was a rumor running through the celestial realm that Yukino was respected and favored by the celestial spirit king because she held three of the most powerful Zodiac keys.

"There's one little problem with the fact that the others got turned into semi-normal celestial spirits, which is that none of them were originally celestial wizards. There's a rumor the original thirteen zodiacs all used to be celestial spirits in possession of silver keys who convinced them to fight the celestial spirit beast of that time. He turned them all to quench his anger, but when the dust cleared and he was devoid of maliciousness, he could not turn them back. In the end, the Zodiac were like this because of the fact that they were turned and ripped from their comrades and took their anger out on us because the eclipse form of the celestial spirit king is too strong to go up against." Lucy explained.

All the now-turned celestial spirits/mages were shell-shocked and could not move nor speak. Erza was the first to break out of the trance. "Then... What happened to Yukino?"

Lucy slowly exhaled the breath she was holding. "Because she's the first celestial wizard turned in hundreds of years and because there's no more room for a new Zodiac, there needed to be a place for her above all of the recent ones and the Zodiac because she actually owned Zodiac keys. My educated guess?" she paused. "The princess, or even the queen, of the celestial realm."

Aires fell to the ground wailing, begging forgiveness to anyone who could hear her.

Leo knelt down by Aires and stroked her back.

Capricorn was silently crying, thinking of his own experiences as a mage-turned-celestial spirit.

Aquarius was sobbing in anger at the prospect that she was part of the reason why the others came to celestial spirit world. To liberate her and her dear comrades.

Scorpio was the one holding his girlfriend so she didn't accidentally lose control of the devil he knew was there and smash the mirror allowing the celestial spirits to see what's currently happening in Earthland.

Virgo came to the still sobbing Lucy, begging for severe punishment.

Libra was in the emo corner speaking to herself about how the balance was disturbed.

Both spirits of Pisces were playing dead on the ground.

Taurus was lying down on the surface of that path, just staring up at the constellations that used to bring him such peace. That peace had become sadness, anger, and regret. He thought back to his family when he was a true human, before the Eclipse that had turned him into one of the spirits which he had once commanded.

Ophiuchus had turned into her human form (a tanned Latina woman with aqua hair and a snake pattern slithering over her dress with a flute was attached to a string around her waist like a belt, and she had high boots that were completely black and metallic) and was fidgeting with the flute that lay on her hip. It seemed to bring her a small amount of peace, just running her fingers over the instrument.

Cancer was on his hands and knees sobbing, his salon scissors nowhere in sight.

Saggitarius was next to Cancer, sitting cross-legged and leaving the crab spirit alone. He needed to be able to learn how to deal with this on his own. How to deal with... whatever this was.

Gemi and Mini were each in their separate corners, Gemi reading a huge novel from the celestial world about its history and Mini sitting in another corner reading about the history of Earthland, also made by celestial spirits. It was book itself was physically writing itself at every moment.

After about ten minutes, even before Virgo got a handle on herself, Lucy caught the spirit of the virgin gate in a hug. The words died in the pink-haired woman's throat.

Lucy didn't bother asking Virgo how she felt. The blonde knew her spirit was dejected and full of sorrow. The blonde didn't blame her poor spirits for not being able to contain their emotions. The exact same thing happened to them some thousand earthland years ago. After only a few months in the celestial world, all their relatives or anyone they ever knew were gone. Dead.

It's even more complicated than that. Most of the people now stuck as Celestial Spirits had significant duties, relationships, and roles that couldn't possibly be filled by anyone else, especially in Hisui's case. The King had given only one daughter, and his wife had died during the fourth year of the seven-year gap.

...

Shit.

Juvia got up off her knees and came up to the blonde celestial mage present. "Love Rival, is there anything we can do now?" the rain woman asked desperately. When a drop of water fell on Lucy's face, she looked up to see clouds blocking the view of the celestial spirit world's sky. Since when did it rain here?

Lucy's eyes softened. "Unfortunately, no. I can capture all your lovers in spare keys, but I'd need their permission to, not to mention sufficient keys to capture said mates." she explained. Her shoulders shook. "I'm so sorry. If I had stopped this sooner, you would all be with your other halves, living a good life in Earthland."

Erza came up and slapped her. Lucy staggered back a bit, a red mark firmly planted on her cheek.

"DON'T SAY SUCH FOOLISH THINGS, LUCY! YOU DID EVERYTHING YOU COULD! WE'RE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE WITH EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENED! IF IT WERE SO, WE COULD HAVE STAYED CONSTELLATIONS WITHOUT KEYS AND YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BRING US BACK TO OUR HOMES, EVEN TEMPORARILY!" Erza yelled. Every single one of the slayers there covered their ears, sensitive to the sudden explosion of sound.

Lucy still looked depressed. "If I hadn't been so incredibly weak, you all wouldn't be stuck here."

"Lucy, this isn't anyone's fault but our own." Levy said, looking to her longtime friend, completely abandoning the suffix. When something glowed from inside of her dress's pocket, Levy took it out to reveal a key. Orange in color. On the part where the constellation lay was a pen-like shape with a trail of ink following past it. The tip of that pen shone brightest of those stars. At the end of the thin circular slip of metal lay one two words, each on one side. 'Solid' and 'Script'. At the top was a design of the headband she was wearing during the fight with the eclipse spirit king. Levy held it in front of her dear friend and stared at her as she wagged it disapprovingly. "Now, if you don't take this key I'm gonna find you and shatter you until you take the frigging thing."

Lucy nodded tearfully and held her hand up shakily. A whirlwind of emotions whirled up with within the short blonde as she took the tangerine-colored key from her best friend. The metal was smooth and warm, like newly hardened steel. She sobbed when the others came up to her with their own keys and closed her fingers around them.

Mira's was acid purple in color. Her constellation was a simple 'MJ', but what was really puzzling was the figures on the outside of the metal-like key. Two arms intertwined, one the plated gauntlet of Satan Soul, and the other a clawed wooden hand with purple blobs. On the top was her signature pony tail holding up her bangs. Everything was in accurate colors.

Wendy's key was a smoky white. Her constellation looked like a cloud. The end of her key looked like wind blowing. The top of her key was a mix between midnight blue and the normal blue you would see in the sky.

Carla's key was the color of a smoky quartz. Her constellation was a bubble. The top of her key held cat ears and a bow and the bottom looked like a cat tail wrapping around the key's bottom. At the end was another vibrant pink bow.

Cana's key was the color of beer. The top was shaped like a barrel. Her constellation was a glowing rectangle, and the bottom held four figures: a spade, a diamond, a club, and a heart (figures on playing cards).

Hisui's key was green. Her constellation was a 'H-E-F' figure. The top of her key was decorated with a crown. The bottom of her key was decorated with glass jewels.

Archadeos's key was auburn. The top was decorated like a knight's helmet. The bottom was decorated like a sword. His constellation was a pumpkin (Wait... Pumpkin? ... Never mind, think about it later).

Pantherlily's key was black. It was decorated at the top with panther ears. The bottom was exactly like his sword. His constellation was the shadow of a cat.

Elfman's was a white base with several beast arms sticking out from every which way. On the top, along with the beast arms (that she knew she was eventually going to hurt herself on with all the clawed fingers) was a thick mane of platinum blonde hair. There was a long scar going along the constellation of 'EM'. Within the thick mane of frozen metallic hair was a pair of glasses, a heart, and the clubs sign from the playing cards game.

Erza's was arguably the most special. The top depicted a battle full of fire, showing her past, the middle shackles and chains, depicting her imprisonment, followed by a silver sword held by an armored gauntlet, her desire to remain a knight. The entire key was colored red, sickeningly scarlet and smelling of blood. Erza's constellation depicted a brown eye being slashed twice, each slash diagonal in the form of an 'X'.

Lisanna's constellation, unlike her siblings, was a single red rose with several thorns and two leaves sticking out from the stem. Her key was purple with darker purple stripes going all along the sides. The stranger thing was at the bottom: instead of something that showcased her powers, there was a tiny figure of the Sabertooth insignia next to a tiny figure of the Fairy Tail insignia. Not even Lisanna herself understood it.

The Zodiac came up to Lucy. "We all got our keys back. We don't know how they came back to us, but they belong to you." Virgo said, taking their keys and giving them back to the blonde. Grateful to at least have some good news, Lucy took the keys from Virgo's hands. After slipping on the keys, she noticed the three rogue keys in the pile. She stuttered, staring slightly at the keys clenched within her hands.

"P-Pisces? Libra? You too, Ophiuchus?" Lucy asked hesitantly, staring at the three gate keys with confusion. "Wh-"

"With Yukino as the princess of the celestial realm, there's no one else to take over our keys." Ophiuchus said sadly, still running her hands over her flute oh-so delicately. "Besides, most of the scarce celestial mages who are left are incredibly abusive. Why would we let our keys fall down to Earthland and eventually fall into the hands of someone who's unfit to contract with us and will only cause us harm if there's a celestial mage right here who can take our keys and make us feel welcomed and safe with our lives?" Ophiuchus sighed and got off the ground. "Lucy, Yukino's not gonna go anywhere any time soon, especially being the celestial realm's princess. Her being gone isn't good for the zodiac you didn't have until now. Now take mine, Pisces's and Libra's key or I'm gonna have to go serpent-lady on you." Ophiuchus threatened.

"NO, YOU WON'T!" Came loud and radiant voice.

Libra immediately started crying. "It can't be..." Her voice stuttered. "Miss Yukino?"

Down from the no-longer-rainy sky was Yukino in all of her glory. The only thing that had changed about the girl was her eyes, which had gained a honey-like hue. Her feet connected with the cobblestone-like path. Yukino crossed her arms seriously and shook her head. "Honestly, what am I going to do with the both of you?"

Lucy shrugged. "I actually don't know."

Yukino shook her head. "You two are so ridiculous. Lucy, just take their keys. I insist."

Suddenly, the image of Yukino offering Libra and Pisces' keys to her at the times of the GMG resurfaced. _Please, take good care of them,_ she had said mournfully, and her expression betrayed none of her emotions. Sadness at why she was giving up her beloved keys. Anger at herself for losing to Kagura. Jealously directed towards her for possessing more Zodiac keys.

None of these emotions were contained in Yukino's expression now. Instead, her expression was soft.

Lucy suddenly felt a flash of pity for the platinum blonde. Yukino is trapped in the Celestial realm for the rest of her life until her magic container fills up enough to enter Earthland through the gate without hurting herself.

 _This raises an interesting question,_ Lucy thought. _Can Yukino stay in Earthland longer than Leo? I suppose if she managed her magic container efficiently, and maybe if she was taught how to withstand the drain on magic by Leo himself..._

 _Then again, this is a completely new environment for Yukino. She's never been in the Celestial world before, and it's likely that the nature of her magic changed exponentially. It would probably take a long time for her to learn how to leave the Celestial world, even with Leo's guidance. It might take something she considered drastic, like when Mustache-face was convinced to prove to me that his verdict was true and just._

 _Come to think of it, I never figured out why Mustache-man was so obsessed with proving me wrong, or why he decided to change his verdict in the first place._

Lucy bolted to her feet, shocking everyone in the vicinity. Lucy slipped all of the keys in her hands into her key pouch, then stood taller despite the added weight in her right hip and the belt digging into her left side. Suddenly, it was as if the environment melted around Lucy. "I CALL UPON THEE, POLARIS, HIGH KING OF THE CELESTIAL REALM."

The Celestial king appeared in the sky. Immediately, everyone present but the Zodiac and got on their knees and bowed once Yukino did. Once the king's feet touched the ground, matter began shifting to accommodate his large stature.

"Ms Lucy Heartfilia, mage of Fairy Tail." Lucy voiced, introducing herself, bowing at a perfect 90-degree angle.

"Lord Polaris, High King of the Celestial Realm." Polaris got on one knee and bowed to the blonde as a sign of respect.

Both of them straightened.

"Mustache, I want to know why you first appeared to me. Why you changed your verdict and why you care about my opinion at all." Lucy declared proudly.

The Celestial king's eyes slid shut. "Those reasons are extremely complicated. It would take an enormous amount of time to explain."

"Then give to me a method of communication between us." Lucy protested to his saying he wouldn't explain.

The spirit king shook his head. "I must not. If this 'method of communication' were to fall into the hands of someone who would abuse such power..."

"I promise to mask it and keep it separate from my keys. It'll look like a regular telephone lacrima."

The spirit King's shoulders relaxed. "Very well." The king removed the star from his helmet. In Lucy's arms, it shrank and turned into a regular telephone lacrima. "Ms Heartfilia, there is something else you must know about that communications device. It can be used to summon my weapons. I would advise you to keep it with you always."

Lucy nodded and had to consciously keep her face straight (which was strange as she was raised in a household where she was explicitly taught to be deceptive concerning her emotions), and slipped the telephone lacrima into one of her brown boots. It would be safe there.

The blonde turned back to her friends. She hugged Levy, Yukino, Wendy, and Erza, then turned back to the Spirit King. "Please return us to Earthland."

"As you wish." The spirit king's voice droned.

With that, everything faded to black.


	2. Return to Earthland

**What if the celestial spirit king retained all of his memories after the eclipse that affected celestial spirits and wasn't able to restore all of the mages to normal? What if they were stuck as constellations/celestial spirits? My take on the aftermath of 'Eclipse' saga.**

 **Here's what might have happened.**

 **I own nothing except the story and the former fairy tail mages' keys (not including Leo's (If you're confused with someone being called 'Leo', that's Loke)).**

 **Rewritten almost from scratch. Really sorry about it being complete and utter crap before.**

Lucy awoke in the guild at exactly the time when the Eclipse began, before the mission with Natsu where the blonde couldn't summon the Zodiac keys.

The increased weight on her hip reminded the blonde exactly of what she'd lost, for the digging of her belt against her midsection, covered with her tank-top as she may be, reminded her exactly of what was missing before Master Makarov spoke up.

"Has anyone seen Mira? She didn't show up for work today." The old man piped up from his usual stool, Kinana behind him hastily preparing some Veal Parmesan for the man who had requested the dish.

Happy began to sob, allowing Natsu to follow and a few tears leak down his own face. Gajeel hastily wiped his own away, while Gray didn't even seem to acknowledge that he was crying, or anything else.

However, Lucy simply stood and took a key from the pouch hanging off of her waist. "Here she is." Lucy tossed the acid-purple key at Makarov's feet. "Mirajane Strauss, Demon Child of the Nebulae clan."

Makarov stared at the acid-purple key and immediately recognized the color scheme. The purple was derived from Mira's acid she naturally produced, similar to the shade Kinana could form in flying-snake mode. The first arm, the wooden one with the purple blobs, was the first Mirajane had used, the reason for which she and her siblings first came to Fairy Tail. The other arm was Satan soul's, the unmistakable beige-green and fins.

The high pony tail holding her bangs up was also signature to the demon woman. However, what really convinced him that it was Mira's key was the handwriting of her initials, specific only to the platinum-haired barmaid.

Makarov's hands flew to his face and looked away from the acid-colored key. "Lucy, what happened? Where's Mirajane?" Came the guild master's voice. Of course, most of the guild was staring at them, also wondering exactly what happened to Mira, even though she wasn't nearly the only one missing.

"She's not the only one, Old Man." Lucy spoke, taking all of her other comrades' keys from the pouch and tossing them at his feet.

Unable to help himself, Makarov glanced desperately down at the keys. Some he could immediately place: Elfman's, Erza's, Levy's, Pantherlily's, Juvia's, and Wendy's. He was able to place Carla's, Pantherlily's, and Lisanna's and eventually Hisui's, and after Hisui came Archadeos without any trouble at all.

Lucy didn't stop there, either. She threw Libra's, Pisces's, and Ophiuchus's keys on the floor.

Natsu fell to his knees. There were so many of his lost friends to keep track of.

"The entire Nebulae clan." Lucy spoke, glaring softly at the numerous keys she had yet to make contracts with.

The doors flew open and the Twin Slayers of Sabertooth stood at the entrance to the Guild. "We're looking for Lucy Heartfilia."

Lucy knelt down and took the Nebulae Clan off the floor. "This is she."

Sting lost the tenseness in his shoulders. "Lucy, we need to talk."

Lucy's eyes softened. "Quite right. Should it happen here, or somewhere else?"

"Perhaps at your home?" Rogue suggested.

Lucy nodded and left the guild hall.

* * *

Lucy sat opposite the couch in which Rogue sat next to Sting. "What did you need to talk to me about?"

Rogue began. "Yukino told us that if something ever happened to come to you. Because she just disappeared in the middle of a job, we decided to get here as quickly as we could, but I fear we're too late. Are we?"

"You are." Lucy told them, then took out Yukino's old keys and set them in front of the twin slayers. "Yukino left me her keys." She looked up from the three golden gate keys. "I realize this is going to sound insensitive, but did Yukino have any keys other than these?"

Sting nodded and reached a hand into his pocket. "Yukino said something about this being a 'Diamond Key' or something like that."

Lucy took the key from the White Dragon Slayer and inspected the key carefully. Diamond Keys were hard to summon, normally without a key or with incredibly magic. Not only that, but they're hardly ever let out the Celestial palace. "Did she say anything about what color diamond this one is?"

Sting scratched his head. "Um, I think she said something about it being a 'Multidimensional Diamond'?"

Lucy's eyes darted over the key to try and gain some perspective. "There is no constellation. The color continually shifts. Tiny makeshift silver chain of purple diamond wrapped around the key. Most natural color is green. The top is not normal compared to other keys, more like a gear in a machine: 12 studs. Second most natural color is black. On the bottom of the chain is an anchor. The chain has 76 links." Lucy set the key on the table and got to her feet, walking over to her bookshelves. "Where have I seen something like that before?"

"Lucy, what are you doing?" Rogue asked.

"Trying to figure out what spirit belongs to this key." Lucy's eyes glided over the covers of the books on her bookshelf. " _Understanding your spirit, How to form a contract, How to increase your magic container's volume,_ _How to recognize your celestial spirit based on their key_! Here it is." Lucy took the large volume off of the shelf and opened the book to its index. "Silver keys, Gold keys, Pearl keys, Nonexistent keys, Diamond keys." Lucy followed her fingernail after her eyes met 'Diamond keys', then quickly flipped through the pages to find 723.

' _DIAMOND KEYS are some of the most rare keys known so far. They belong to the following spirits: Celestial Royalty, the Ecliptic, Urano Metria, the Queen of the Elemental Dragons, The underworld, hell, and heaven gate keys, and the Dimension Key. Each Diamond Key is a specific color Diamond (listed beneath the photographs)._

' _These keys are each a part of something greater than themselves._

' _The Celestial Royalty keys; Polaris, Allura, and the Spirit Prince (unknown name) each rule over specific parts of the spirit world._

' _Polaris, the Spirit King, keeps the laws just, according to every spirit. If there is a concern brought up concerning a previous judgement, that law can be called into question and altered to keep it fair. However, this is normally only under extenuating circumstances, such as the upcoming death of a Zodiac spirit. Even then, the law is only altered is the celestial spirit mage who calls the law into question has an overwhelmingly powerful magical container._

' _Allura, the Spirit Queen, is patient and kind. She never hesitates to put the needs of others above her own, and never ceases to keep order and balance alongside her husband. This woman was the first to be turned into a celestial spirit for the Eclipse. Allura is the keeper of the gates, making certain to never let the hinges rust or the locks to break._

' _The Spirit Prince is the most mysterious. We aren't sure exactly what his role in the Celestial realm is, or his name, only that he rules alongside his father. It's theorized that the Spirit Prince was a rune mage during his time on Earthland as a normal resident, for the few times he was actually summoned, he used white runes to trap and incapacitate the enemies of his friends. Going by this ideology, it is entirely possible that he surrounded the entire celestial world, and possibly all of ours, with runes concerning magic, the use of magic, and its uses._

' _The Ecliptic is almost equally as important as the Celestial Royalty. Seen from earth, it is how we Earthlanders have come to recognize the Zodiac constellations. It is by these rules that whenever all of the Zodiac is summoned that you must use the Ecliptic gate, and not thirteen Golden Gates. It is also why, if you're summoning all thirteen spirits for whatever particular reason, that they must be arranged in an aerial circle under the pattern in which the Zodiac appear from the beginning of January to December (Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aires, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Saggitarius, Ophiuchus, Saggitarius (The reason why Saggitarius is named twice is because Ophiuchus actually appears at the same time as Saggitarius, but ends its cycle before Saggitarius does))._

' _Urano Metria is literally the incorporeal form of all 88 constellations. Normally, it's a trump card in a battle. However, exactly like the Ecliptic, Urano's true spirit takes a different form than when she's summoned without her key. Without her key, she's summoned as 88 unconnected multidimensional spheres. However, with her key, she's summoned as a beautiful woman with multidimensional hair and a book. Depending on what attack she must use or spirit she must summon, she will go through the pages of the book and find the attack, then perform the attack._

' _Just as the Queen of the Elemental Dragons takes a different form each time the key changes hands, so the spirit also changes. There's never a fixed form to her. She's known a 'Shapeshifter', for she constantly shifts appearances and mannerisms. Because of this, her key is constantly unrecognizable. However, the most prominent form to Shapeshifter is a pair of red wings. Either on her back, her shoes, her collarbone, or printed on her clothes, it is always there, without fail._

' _Similar to the Queen of the Elemental Dragons, Hell and the Underworld keys are always different. However, Hell always takes the form of a fire demon (always in a different form), and the Underworld's key never takes any color other than black, which includes the constellation they're recognized by._

' _The Heaven key's spirit never changes form. It is always similar to a cloud, fluffy and soft, comforting and warm, similar to Aires' wool bomb attack (see more on Aires on page 297). However, the key is predominantly a soft pink, but has the ability to reject any key-holder they find unworthy._

' _The Dimension Key is a **'Matryoshka doll'** (A Russian doll of a large woman being split in half, who contains another woman, and so on, and so forth) of other keys. There are nine keys: Alfheim, Niffelheim, Jotounheim, Asgard, Muspelheim, Hel, Vanaheim, Nedavelier. The key will be split down the middle, and larger than the average key. Normally, a key isn't hollow because it contains a fragment of Polaris's DNA, but because these keys are each crafted and forged with Polaris's Mustache hair, the normal blood drop isn't necessary. Each time a new dimension is added, you will be able to access that dimension through the new outer shell._ '

Beside each description was a picture of the key, and beneath that was a color belonging to the specific diamond key.

Finally, she found the correct key, lining up exactly with the description of the key.

Thankfully, Sting and Rogue had remained quiet through the entire ordeal. Rogue, ever the gentleman, was simply sitting still and being good while Sting slept where he sat.

Lucy exclaimed. "Where the Quiznak did Yukino find the key belonging to Urano Metria?!"

Sting jolted awake. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he sighed. "'Quiznak'?"

Lucy blushed. "There are a lot of children in the guild. We need to keep our language appropriate, so Master invented a weird code word, Quiznak, which basically is every curse word. Context supplies the correct one."

Rogue hummed. "So, you say the key belongs to a spirit called Urano Metria?"

Lucy nodded. "She's one of the strongest spirits possible to summon without a key. I tried summoning her without a key in the GMG, but my opponent's teammates cancelled the spell."

Sting nodded. "We saw."

"Then you both should have noticed exactly the concentration of magic power." Lucy said. "Urano's power is even greater in her normal form because her attacks can be concentrated on a single thing instead of dividing her resources. Aside from that, Urano doesn't have to depend on the summoner's strength, or magic power. She has more than enough on her own."

"And if she depletes her magic power, she can always fall back on yours." Sting held his chin.

"Unless she exited the celestial spirit world of her own volition." Rogue pointed out.

Ah. Yukino had informed them of these things.

Sting shook his head and cleared his throat. "Such things don't matter. Lucy, can you summon Yukino?"

Lucy shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. Without her key, it would be impossible."

Sting's eyes fell blank and his back sunk deeper into the couch's cushions.

Rogue held up a job request. "We were on our way to this job when she disappeared. Yukino said something about a Diamond key, which is why she went on it in the first place."

Lucy took the folded piece of paper from the Shadow slayer and opened it to find only a picture of a key. Lucy whistled. "Boy, Yukino was really making her way through the Diamond Keys, wasn't she?"

"Not really. Yukino told us that she inherited the Diamond key from her mother and the other her mother owned went to her sister. She just managed to find that one." Rogue crossed his arms.

 _ **RED DIAMOND KEY,**_ the request flyer declared. _**ANY CELESTIAL MAGE WHO WANTS TO TAKE THIS OFF OUR HANDS, PLEASE COME NOW.**_

 _ **BE WARNED THIS KEY HAS TAKEN THE LIFE OF EVERY NORMAL CELESTIAL MAGE WHO HAS TRIED TO SUMMON IT SO FAR. ANY MAGE NOT SPECIALIZING IN THE CELESTIAL BODIES HAS DIED ONCE COMING INTO CONTACT WITH THE KEY.**_

 _ **JOB: TAKE THE RED DIAMOND CELESTIAL KEY FROM US.**_

 _ **REQUIREMENTS FOR THE JOB: A CELESTIAL MAGE I POSSESSION OF S-CLASS LEVEL MAGIC.**_

 _ **REWARD: FOUR MILLION JEWEL.**_

"Holy Quiznak! Four million Jewel to take possession of a Celestial key?" Lucy dropped the flyer and stepped away as if it would bite off her hand.

Sting nodded. "'Holy Quiznak' is right. Obviously, we can't touch the key, even with my gloves, but if you wanted the Red Diamond key?"

Lucy was already on her feet and pulling on her coat. "No self-respecting celestial mage with one single shred of sanity would ever refuse a Diamond Key." was her only response. However, halfway out the door she stopped. "The only problem is, I'm not even sure I have S-class magic levels."

"Lucy, any person who can summon Urano Metria after four Golden Gate keys in a row obviously has S-class magic. It's physical strength you have to worry about." Rogue responded monotonously.

The telephone Lacrima she had left in her shoe buzzed. She switched it on, revealing a message from Yukino. "I'd like to see you witness one of her kicks and say that again." Lucy showed the message to the two slayers.

Sting chuckled and turned his head up to the sky. "Sorry, Yuki-chan."

"I stand corrected, then." Rogue conceded.

With that, Lucy dragged the two out of her home with a smile on her lips and a laugh erupting from her throat. "Come on, we're going on this job!"

Sting smiled widely, and Rogue's lips lifted slightly.

* * *

Yukino looked down from her place in the Celestial spirit realm down on her fellow celestial spirit mage and her old partners.

Levy sat next to her. "Hello, Princess."

"Good morning, Levy." Yukino said, not taking her eyes off the scene.

For a while, the two simply sat in silence, until Levy turned her eyes towards her princess. "Yukino, you need to lighten up a bit. You need to learn to keep the peace alongside your mother."

"I know. It's just a bit hard for me right now. I just got turned into a Celestial spirit, something I never thought I would become, and now I have to rule alongside the Queen. I'm separated from my sister, my teammates, my guild, my mate." Yukino turned her face to Levy. "Scripts, you're lucky you're a Nebula. You actually have a key."

"Don't you have one too?"

Yukino shook her head. "Normally, Diamond Keys take an earth year to create, and even more time than that before they can be ejected from the palace. Only the Ecliptic's key took three earth years to be cast away from the Celestial palace. The longest, the Heaven key, took three years _here_."

Levy shivered. "Sounds horrible."

"Not in the slightest." Yukino waved off the girl's concerns. "Being here is similar to being in Earthland. You can replenish your energy in peace, and even increase the volume of your magic container."

Levy sighed. "Yeah, I noticed that. Yu-chan, why do I feel so much more powerful here than I ever did on Earthland?"

"Because suns have far more power than rocks." Yukino responded simply, turning her head back down to the giggling blonde celestial mage. "Because of this, your magic may be altered. Don't get me wrong, you'll still own Solid Script powers, but the fact that you're in a new plane of space will force your magic to accommodate to the change."

Levy looked down at the same scene. "Yukino, I was told about Edolas from the others. Why did their magic not change?"

"Because they weren't in a different plane of space, just a different dimension of the same plane of space." Yukino responded without missing a beat.

Levy looked confused. "Could you elaborate on that?"

Yukino chuckled. "Space is like a building. We're all crammed into one room of this building at all times. Now, you earthlanders and people from Edolas share an entire floor. The Anima is sort of like the hallway between those two rooms. But it's different with the Dragon Realm and the Celestial Spirit world. The Celestial Spirit world has an entire floor all to itself, and the gate keys access a specific 'elevator' which brings a specific spirit down to your floor for whatever reason. But now you and your teammates and Hisui, Archadeos, and I been promoted to a new floor. The rules are different. We have more responsibilities, which gives us more power."

Levy nodded, understanding. "And you're one of four managers in charge of this 'floor'?"

"That's it."

The train started and immediately, Sting fell silent while Rogue awoke from his brief nap.

Yukino chuckled slightly at Sting's expression of complete sickness while Rogue's face only turned slightly greener and the Shadow Dragon attempted to keep his stomach's contents in his stomach.

In response to this, Lucy got up and sat between the two slayers. Lucy grasped at Sting's neck and pulled him down to meet her neck. Lucy did the same with Rogue, only the side of his head met her lap. With this done, Lucy began petting the two slayer's heads, smoothing down their hair and gently working through the knots entangled in their hair.

Levy stood and walked away from the Celestial mirror. "I'll leave you to ogle at your mate."

Once Levy was far away from Yukino, the platinum blonde shifted the image over to Natsu, fighting with Gray over some trivial argument in the guild hall. "Ogle I shall."

After a few minutes of staring at the scene developing below, Yukino walked away from the mirror. The image faded.

Yukino, tears in her eyes, walked back to the golden castle, shining brighter than the immense collection of stars littering the Earthland night sky. "I promise, _Alamaraine_ , I will bring you back to me."

 **Okay. That's it for this chapter. Please leave a review.**

 **Translations:**

 **Alamaraine: 'My mate' (Acrisc, Dragon language).**

 **Quiznak: Any curse word.**

 **Nebulae: Plural of 'Nebula'.**

 **Ecliptic: Imaginary line in the sky marked by the view off of Earth which distinguishes the Zodiac constellations.**


	3. Countenance of spirits

**I own nothing except the story and the former fairy tail mages' keys (not including Leo's (If you're confused with someone being called 'Leo', that's Loke)).**

 **Rewritten almost from scratch.**

 **Review replies:**

 **Guest: Any better now?**

 **jasper is hot1: Thank you.**

 **The Sassy Sylveon: Thank you, but I don't need that repeated. Also, is it _any better now_** **?**

 **MandDsGirl: Thanks for bringing my attention to that. That's fixed now.**

 **Cheschire-Kaat: No. Lucy will form contracts with all of the Nebulae keys, because there's no chance they could be summoned in any other case. Almost everyone who practices or used to practice Celestial magic are dead or transfigured, and if they aren't, they are as Ophiuchus pointed out: incredibly abusive towards their spirits. Lucy is the sole exception still a Spirit Mage (a lot of people were discouraged from practicing Celestial magic when ten of the twelve Zodiac went missing over the span of seven years, it's almost an extinct form of magic). Still, the method of communication between Lucy and Polaris isn't for nothing.**

 **Anonymous: Right, really sorry about that. Don't worry, I went back and fixed that. It's in 'Prologue' right between Elfman's and Lisanna's key descriptions.**

 **I'll get back to writing now.**

* * *

"So, Lucy." Rogue began while munching on his cinnamon oatmeal. Both of the Slayers had been temporarily healed of their motion sickness from Wendy, who had used Troia on them both.

Lucy hummed in acknowledgement, taking a bite of her own buttered toast while avoiding random bits of eggs, bacon, buttered toast, pancakes, fruit, and orange juice coming from Sting (she'd gotten a lot of practice from Natsu).

"I was wondering if you actually knew which one was the Red Diamond key." Rogue asked, calmly buttering his own piece of toast.

"Nope. That book was written around six hundred years ago, and a lot of other Diamond Keys have appeared since then. Me and my mom tried to map out some others based off of rumors," she took out her book and flipped to the back, where was listed 'Black Diamond, Green Diamond, Violet Diamond, Red Diamond, Orange Diamond' in purple ink to contrast with the black cover, notably different from Lucy's own handwriting. "But we haven't been all that successful. There almost as many Diamond keys as there are the Zodiac, but they aren't very well-known because people doubt their existence."

Sting paused in his flurry of inhaling the large bowl of porridge that was set in front of him. "That reminds me of something I wanted to ask you. How long do you think Yukino's key'll take until it gets sent down here?"

"It takes one year here to form a Diamond key, maybe eleven months if they work on it without cease? Then it has to be taken to the celestial palace for exactly the amount of time it took to create and then the celestial spirit can appear in court whenever they want to, to appeal for possession of their key to take to Earthland, however that trial normally takes about four days, so at the least two years and ten months years here, and at the most is until Yukino begins to age too rapidly and she takes extensive measures to regain or preserve her youth, so around ten years up there." Lucy looked up at the roof.

Sting hummed and resumed eating.

Lucy sighed and set down the half-eaten piece of toast. "Sting, I already know Yukino isn't your mate."

Sting paused and put down his coffee mug. "Where did you hear about that?"

"I wanted to know who was involved with who so I could transfer the mates to the Celestial world, or get permission from Mustache so they could stay out of their gates for more time than normal when it's needed, like Hisui attending the signing of a treaty or the dragon slayers when they're in heat." Lucy fingered her keys.

Sting looked down at his lap. "You know it's Lisanna?"

"Yeah." Lucy responded.

For the rest of breakfast, the trio sat in a comfortable but heavy silence until Sting spoke up again. "Hey Lucy, are you Natsu-san's mate?"

Lucy choked on the hot chocolate she was previously sipping. "No, why the Quiznak would you think that?" she coughed out. "Natsu's mate is Yukino, which is why I'll be sending him to the Spirit realm before anyone else, especially since there must be a 31-day pause between each permanent transferal."

Rogue softly exhaled a breath of air he wasn't aware he was holding.

"So, who else is on your list of people to be transferred to the alternate reality?"

"Other plane of space," Lucy corrected, "And so far I have Gajeel, Sting, Gray, Happy, Evergreen, Laxus, Mystogan, Natsu. But you know, I've got to prioritize. They're only sending down as many keys as there were people who were turned into Celestial Spirits, so I'm only getting thirteen spare keys unless Yukino decides to give me more, which I doubt."

"Can you reuse these keys, like capture a monster and let the key defeat it, then release the monster and finish it off?" Sting asked.

"Theoretically if that were the case, I would need a direct connection to Alfheim, like a Contract or something, in which the Midgard serpent could forever acid into their eyes, which weakens them. Six millennia could pass there while only six seconds passed here. Really advantageous to me..." Lucy sighed. "I really wish the Red Diamond key was the Dimension key."

* * *

Lucy skipped down the cobblestone road far ahead of Sting and Rogue to the mayor's home, silently ecstatic about obtaining another Diamond key so soon. Of course, the problem with the Diamond keys was the amount of rarity around them. They were very nearly nonexistent keys* even though they had more power level than the Zodiac. Not many people are even aware of the Diamond keys, else most people would practice Celestial magic. If you're in Polaris' favor, he may give you things to aid you in battle, much like the communications device which could summon his weapons given to Lucy.

Speaking of, said communications device wiggled every time she moved her foot, but it was quite tightly secured against her boot that anyone who tried to take it would receive a Lucy Kick to the face.

Once Lucy arrived at the client's home, the door opened for her.

"I thought I sent that flyer to Sabertooth?" the woman owning the key muttered, then shook her head. "I'm sorry. My name is Iris Clemens. Are you here to take the key?" she asked kindly.

"Yes, if you don't mind. I know you probably wanted the key to go to Yukino Aguria."

"Quite right. She's favored by Polaris, you see. I wouldn't think she would have any problem taking up this key." Iris smiled mournfully at the blood-red key. "People favored by the Spirit King tend to own a larger magic container than most."

"I know." Lucy said. "Until I saved Leo, my magic power levels were abysmal at best. Took me ages to get it back under control."

Iris shook her head. "Anyways, onto another topic. I'd like some proof that you own S-class magic so I can give you the key without qualms. Do you have anything that might prove this?"

"Um, are you certain this is necessary? Can't you scan my magic container yourself?"

"Sorry, I'm not trained in that field of magic." Iris scratched her head.

Lucy sighed and opened her key pouch, removing the thirteen keys of the Zodiac and placing them in order. Next, she removed Urano's key from her pouch. Thirdly, she got out the entire Nebulae clan.

Iris studied each of the keys very briefly before giving them back to Lucy. "Thank you, but owning them is one thing. Can you actually summon Urano Metria?"

"Without her key, too." Lucy nodded.

"We can vouch for that." Sting said, pointing to himself and Rogue.

Iris seemed surprised by this before smiling. "Then you have proven yourselves worthy of this key." Iris took the box containing the key and presented it to Lucy, who took the box and lifted the cover away from the key.

Lucy picked up the blood red crystallized key. Books and writing was its main theme, but the constellation was similar to Levy's.

"I hate to impose, but do you have any idea who this spirit is?" Lucy asked Iris.

"Spirit of eternal knowledge of all our situations and destinies, Blue Inkwell the Author. It's said she's ranker higher than Polaris, since Inkwell actually wrote his destiny." Iris responded. "You can see exactly why she requires S-class magic to even hold her key."

"Yeah, no kidding! I'd have to be near Gildarts' magic levels before I even attempt summoning her!" Lucy stared wide-eyed and in awe at the key, then shook her head. "Anyways, I'd better get going. Thanks for the key."

Iris caught her wrist. "What about the money?"

Lucy forced her wrist away from the other woman. "Sting and Rogue can take it. I'm not really in dire need for this. The Diamond key if compensation enough, but you two," she pointed at the two slayers before they took the bag, "Totally owe me for doing the entire job on my own, then taking the entire reward for yourselves."

"Fair enough." the two responded in unison.

Lucy giggled and skipped out of the house, immediately heading towards the nearest magic shop. When asked, Lucy responded she wanted to see if they had a Chariot key.

"He travels faster than a normal train, but the ride is almost always smoother because he travels in the air." Lucy said as they stepped through the door. "By the way, where are Frosch and Lector gone off to? Normally, they're with you since if Frosch dies Rogue'll go insane and Sting killed Jiemma for almost killing Lector."

"Not one of my proudest moments." Sting sweatdropped.

"Frosh and Lector are currently being looked after by Rufus and Orga respectively. We don't like taking them into danger and sometimes they come for necessary reasons if we believe the danger to be minimal, and sometimes they literally say 'eh fuck it' and come along anyways, but we insisted they stay behind this time." Rogue answered Lucy's question.

Lucy hummed in response, walking up to the counter where behind lay a middle-aged man with minimal magic power.

"Do you have any Celestial keys?" Lucy asked kindly to the man behind the counter.

"Hmm. Celestial keys aren't really in high demand." the man said once he walked behind the curtain to the storage area of the store. "Are there any particular keys you're looking for?"

"Any key you have would be accepted, but if you have Chariot, that would really be appreciated."

"Because Dragon Slayers have motion sickness. I know." the old man replied from inside the storage area, a note of humor in his voice.

Rogue did nothing but cross his arms while Sting ranted about how that fact was supposed to be a secret.

A few minutes later, Sting was out of breath, Rogue looked completely unaffected by Sting's loud ranting despite the fact that he had even more acute hearing than Sting, and Lucy was staring at the numerous keys the man had brought out and presented to the blonde.

"Chariot, Serpens, Sculptor, Phoenix, Perseus, Lynx, Draco, Fornax, Caelum, and Hercules the Silvers; Starcharter, Nebula, Pulsar, Quasar, Black Hole, Gravity, the Nonexistents. Holy Quiznak, is that the Violet Diamond key? How did you get this?!" Lucy exclaimed while holding up the crystallized purple key.

"The magic counsel trusts me to hold onto anything of importance until I find someone to pass it along to. I looked at the outside of your key pouch and caught a glimpse of a red aura. Red Diamond key, right? So, if you have a Diamond key, I saw it appropriate that you should own this one: he calls himself the God of death because he can see the day everyone dies and can even kill them off prematurely if the situation warrants such a thing."

Lucy squeaked and fumbled with the key before setting it back on the table. "So this is sort of the last-resort key of the Diamonds, just like Ecliptic key is when you own all of the Zodiac."

Lucy would have to speak with Polaris later.

"Quite right." the man responded. He cleared his throat. "Anyways, this is the ultimatum I'm giving. You can either take only the Violet Diamond key _or_ all the others free of charge, but if you take them all today, it all has to be payed for."

"I'm taking the Violet Diamond key, and Sting and Rogue will take all of the others." Lucy immediately decided, then snatched up the Violet Diamond and strut out of the store next to Rogue before Sting finished shoveling all of the others into his right-hand glove.

Immediately once they left, Sting handed all of the collected keys to Lucy simply by handing her the glove. Lucy gratefully accepted the key-filled glove.

Lucy glanced down at her key pouch, the one decorated with the Fairy Tail emblem, and frowned. "I need a new key ring."

"Or you need to learn Equip magic." Rogue noted, also glancing at the insane amount of keys still piling up. Her hip had to be getting bruised from the weight.

Lucy hummed. "Yeah, you're right, and I have just the teacher." Lucy said, getting out Erza's key. "Open thee, gate of the crimson knight, Erza!"

Erza inhaled once her body had formed and opened her eyes to the sky, the blue shade slowly fading from the sky and slowly revealing the multitude of stars paired with the beautiful dark violet shade painted across the sky. The white clouds gained a faint pink hue.

Erza smiled and fell down on the ground to accommodate the shift in gravity, in magic, and in temperature, but fell on the soft grass which felt very nice on her back, which was clothed only in the usual tank-top under her armor. She inhaled and exhaled, and for a moment she could ignore everything for the sake of that peace.

Then she remembered the set of circumstances from which she had been brought to the softly glowing sky, brought back to reality by a soft squeak from her key-holder.

"Lucy, why did you summon me?" Erza asked sleepily without opening her eyes.

Lucy lay down next to Erza, having relaxed completely. "That can wait."

The scarlet-haired magic-wielder yawned and sighed, relaxing further into the soft green grass belonging to the field. "Okay. Whatever you say, Princess."

Immediately, Erza fell asleep.

Rogue shrugged. "It doesn't smell like it's going to rain, and it's a beautiful night. Besides, we'll sense any danger that comes along." Rogue admonished once he lay down next to Lucy.

Sting sighed, lying down directly next to Rogue.

* * *

Once Lucy fell asleep, Rogue looked over her. She was quite a nice person.

The moon's light shone gently over Lucy's sleeping figure, and Rogue took advantage of this light to study every single curve and facet on the blonde woman's body. Even so, shadows trickled so perfectly over Lucy's figure.

Rogue managed to tear his eyes away from Lucy to stare up at the silent night sky and smiled at the constellations. They were literally connected with long lines of light, which made it far easier to distinguish the constellations from normal stars. We was able to recognize some of the basics, like Sagittarius his Zodiac sign, the big and little Dipper, and Ursa major and minor, but the rest were blurs to him.

Sting hummed, and suddenly Rogue was far more aware that there wasn't just him and Lucy lying down on that field.

"The stars are so beautiful tonight." Sting muttered. "But let's talk about Lucy."

Rogue looked over at the sleeping blonde.

"Do you notice anything unusual?" Sting asked.

Rogue looked her over but found everything to be normal as normal could possibly be. "Not really." the Shadow Dragon responded.

"Not with Lucy specifically, but the fact that _her spirit's still here_."

Erza inhaled and exhaled once more, and shifted in her sleep to roll Lucy over to squish her against her cleavage out of instinct and years of cuddling.

Rogue noticed this immediately and knew exactly where Sting was going with this. "Yukino's spirits nearly always faded once she fell asleep, and isn't this Erza more powerful than a Zodiac spirit?"

"That means Erza takes up more of her magical container than Libra ever did." Sting pointed out. "So how is Erza still here?"

"Well, either Lucy's awake, or Lucy has a far greater magic supply than Yukino ever did."

The telephone lacrima in her boot buzzed. Sting removed the phone from Lucy's long boot and read the message. "The second."

Rogue looked up to the sky. "I know you're my best friend's mentor's mate and everything, not to mention that you're the princess of the spirit realm and all that shit, but can you stop being such a creepy stalker!" Rogue seemed to ask the sky, quite rhetorically at that.

Still, the lacrima popped up with another message: 'I don't want to'.

Lucy's foot twitched in her sleep as Sting put the lacrima back in her brown leather boot. Slowly, Lucy snuggled further against Erza, who in turn clutched her tighter.

Rogue smiled at this. The two teammates looked so at peace with each other's magical containers and presences.

Sting, meanwhile, looked mournfully between the two. "This is how comrades at Fairy Tail react. They're so at ease with each other." Sting looked away from the two as if his eyes couldn't tolerate even one more second of the two's comfort with each other. "I wonder if Sabertooth will ever have that."

Rogue sighed and tucked his knees close to his chest. "I don't know." Rogue confessed. "But you know very well that it's not really like that. Sabertooth's and Fairy Tail's situations are different. Fairy Tail was established by a great enchantress whom everyone respected, including Zeref, while Sabertooth was established by six idiots that Jiemma eventually killed to gain control of the guild. Fairy Tail's been living in peace with the government for more than four hundred years, while we got a bad reputation because Jiemma was a lunatic dictator. Fairy Tail-"

"Thank you." Sting cut his friend off before the praising of Fairy Tail and the criticism of Sabertooth escalated.

Rogue sighed and allowed dark shadows to fall over his eyes even as his bangs readjusted and hid his face from view. "The population still doesn't trust us. A lot of us are still trying to prove to you that they're strong enough to stay in the guild out of instinct and fear. Jiemma was brutal, disgusting, and deranged. You did the guild, especially Minerva, a favor by getting rid of him."

"And now he's pushing up daisies." Sting agreed, lying back down.

Rogue turned his head towards Lucy again and smiled slightly.

"Rogue?" Sting asked the Shadow slayer.

Rogue hummed in acknowledgement to Sting's call but didn't look away from Lucy.

"Is Blondie your mate?"

Rogue huffed. "You're blond too, ya know."

"Rogue." Sting said seriously.

Rogue sighed and gently ran a hand across Lucy's silky locks. "Yes."

"Boy, you are seriously 'Quiznak'ed'." Sting sighed as he leaned back on the grass.

Rogue sighed heavily and fell back beside Sting. "You need sleep." Rogue said to Sting firmly. "I'll watch over us. Get some rest."

Sting sighed and lay down. "Alright, alright. 'Night."

"Pleasant dreams." Rogue responded in kind, lying down next to his twin.

* * *

Rogue inhaled more shadows. The purest by far were during the night. Doing this, he allowed his mind to wander.

Lucy Heartfilia appeared to be his mate. This girl was collecting keys at an indescribable rate, especially Diamond keys. Ironically, she seemed to be attracted to the Diamond keys, alongside the Nonexistent keys.

' _Because she's favored by the spirit king._ ' Rogue's mind supplied. ' _The king'll give her all the keys she wants because he likes her, just like he has with all the other celestial mages who he likes._ '

Rogue gazed over her and ran a hand over her silky locks and silently counted the keys he knew she had.

The entire Zodiac set is Thirteen keys. The Nebulae keys are also thirteen keys. Three of thirteen Diamond keys. 19 silver keys. Six of thirteen Nonexistent keys. That is, if you don't count the communication device between Lucy and the Celestial royalty.

The total comes to 55 keys if you count the communications lacrima, and she owned only about sixteen before the week began.

Rogue sighed, took off his cloak, draped it over Lucy, and rose to his feet. He dusted off the seat of his pants, and walked towards the forest.

Rogue did not return that night.

* * *

Rogue viciously tore through trees and rock faces to get at his prey. Rumors spoke of a dark guild called Crimson Shadow, taking mostly assassination requests.

Rogue shadow-morphed and quickly moved through the forest until he found the guild hall of the dark guild. So, the rumors were true after all.

Rogue entered the guild and brought it to its knees.

In retrospect, for a dark guild taking nothing but killing jobs, the guild was rather small and empty. Pathetic, actually.

Still, Rogue would stay on guard. Nothing came without retaliation, when is came to the unfortunate shadow slayer.

Leaving a mess of bloody men behind him, he sealed the doors and windows to the guild and left. Call him paranoid, but being attacked after leaving the guild hall he'd just taken down had happened before.

Just to be sure, he phased into the shadows and went to the local police forces. Through the shadows, he led the police to the black-magic guild hall. They were all arrested.

* * *

Lucy looked around for Rogue, even going so far as to summon Wendy and Gajeel to look for him. Unfortunately he'd covered his tracks very well. Gajeel could find no sign of the scent, and Wendy was no help, she was too inexperienced.

Rogue came back on his own after Lucy had left to retrieve breakfast with Sting. He sat still in the clearing where they'd both slept waiting for the others to come back. He was exhausted. He yawned and covered himself with his cloak, curling into a ball under his cloak to not be sunburned.

It was especially cute when he giggled like a little kid every once and a while and the cloak would move with his breathing.

That was how Sting and Lucy found him: cutely curled into a ball under his cloak.

Lucy chose not to wake him up (Natsu had charred her bedsheets when she woke him up from when he slept in her bed while she was in it. She'd hate to see the reaction from a man whose future self tried to kill her), instead going deep into the forest to make contracts with her new spirits.

Inkwell was her favorite. She wore a grey dress, held black hair, silver eyes, and kept writing in a journal with a crystallized water pen with purple ink. She seemed to keep writing everything she saw or observed, if there was a huge part of history to record.

"What are you writing?" Lucy had once asked Inky (as she'd been nicknamed).

"What I write is beyond your comprehension." Inky spoke as she turned the page. She licked the end of the pen, coloring her tongue purple. "Interestingly, I've already finished your generation's destinies several hundred years ago. Telling you yours is against the rules, since you might do something to avoid that destiny, but you'll be a very prominent figure in history, I imagine." Inky smirked.

Once, Lucy had gotten a glimpse at what she was writing in that book. No ink, after a second, was visible.

* * *

Rogue came back to the site to find no one, excluding Erza. She was smiling and sitting calmly on the ground. The air waved gently around her. She smiled. "Hello, Rogue."

"Good morning, Miss Scarlett." Rogue replied, walking into the field with hands in his pockets. "Do you know where Lucy is?"

"Not really interested in stuff like that. Lucy can handle herself. I once saw her take down an entire legion or warriors, then turn around and summon all of the Zodiac spirits she owned at the time. It was amazing." Erza smiled.

Rogue sat down next to her. "If I remember correctly, she's also the person in your guild who's been kidnapped the most."

"She's always gotten out of those situations." Erza quipped back.

Rogue chuckled. "I suppose you're right."

Erza held out a plate and a fork. "Want some cake?"

"Only if it's chocolate."

0~0~0~0~0

Rogue spent the rest of the day until lunchtime eating cake with Erza listening to stories about Lucy. Apparently, both had a shockingly ditsy blonde friend, because he exchanged equally funny stories about Sting.

"... And then she kicked him in the face!" Erza laughed. "It was so hilarious! She seems to do that a lot, but he went straight through the guild hall's roof!"

Rogue chuckled. "He did deserve it, though."

"Yup. Asking her if he could have his underwear, the _nerve_!"

"Hi!" came the voice of the blonde celestial spirit mage. "Welcome back, Rogue!"

Bubbles of warmth popped up in his stomach. She was so sweet. "Hi, Lucy."

"Erza, you can go back now if you want." Lucy spoke kindly to her companion."

"Thanks, Lucy." Erza exploded into a pile of smoke.

Rogue's chocolate cake disappeared alongside Erza. He wanted it back. Chocolate was his favorite.

 **LATER**

As Lucy slept on his shoulder, he reconsidered what he called his favorite. Chocolate first, Lucy second.

Lucy snuggled further into his cape. He inhaled her scent, it was very relaxing.

...

Maybe it depended on the kind of chocolate.

 **Hi! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you have any ideas, feel free to give them!**

 **Later!**


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